Rotary Club of Kinston updates / Names in news

The Free Press

Thursday

Oct 17, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 17, 2013 at 9:56 PM

The Rotary Club of Kinston heard presentations on industrial recruitment and emergency services and heard a report on Rotary projects from a Kinston native now leading Rotary District 7730 as its new governor.

On Sept. 5, John Chaffee, president and CEO of North Carolina’s Eastern Region, explained that changes in the structure of the organization will not significantly alter its focus on job creation and ensuring worker readiness. As part of the reorganization of the state Department of Commerce, the state’s regional economic development offices will shift from their current status as public entities to private, nonprofit operations.

“We’re transitioning,” Chaffee said.

Regardless, he said his office continues to work at job creation by building “clusters” of industry that already have a foothold in or are suited to locating in the 13 counties of the Eastern Region — among them, aerospace, pharmaceuticals and the military. “Lenoir County is at the head of the aerospace industry in North Carolina,” Chaffee said, primarily due to the Global TransPark and the Spirit AeroSystems plant there. “This is a very high wage and growing sector of the economy. There’s tremendous demand for new aircraft.”

Telling Rotarians that “the No. 1 issue for industry today is the availability of labor,” Chaffee said the Eastern Region is working with the region’s community colleges to increase the percentage of workers who have Career Readiness Certificates. Already the region, he said, leads the state in the number and percentage of workers who have completed that training.

On Sept. 12, Roger Dail, emergency services director for Lenoir County, updated the club on his department’s major project — consolidating Lenoir’s 911 call center with the center in Jones County.

It’s the first time in the state of North Carolina that two existing 911 centers have been consolidated,” he said.

The project began with discussions four years ago and actually began moving toward competition two years ago. The Lenoir County center is already taking Jones County emergency calls, he said, and the project should be finished by the end of 2014.

A $7.4 million grant from the state paid for the necessary upgrading of the consolidated center’s radio system — replacing a system purchased in 1993 — and for the remodeling on the 911 center on Rhodes Avenue and construction of a backup center in Jones County. He said Jones County will pay 15 percent of the center’s operating costs, based on the county’s population.

On Sept. 19, Andy Chused, a Kinston native now living in Morehead City and recently installed as governor of Rotary District 7730, spoke to the club about the commitment needed to fulfill the mission of Rotary International.

Being a Rotarian is a commitment that goes far beyond attending meetings once a week,” he said. “When you make the decision to truly engage in Rotary, to make Rotary a part of your daily life, you begin to see the impact Rotary makes.”

One way Rotary makes a difference is through grant awards, said Chused, a Rotarian for 15 years. In addition to the matching grants that help further the charitable work of individual clubs, Rotary also provides global grants for work in such areas as literacy and water and sanitation improvements and grants to such established charity operations as the Mercy Ships, which provides medical care around the world.

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